Eleanor at 35 Months

Now that Nora is talking more than ever, I've been privy to some pretty hilarious conversations between her and Will. One of the funniest recently happened the other day. Will was boasting about how he had won a race while playing Mario Kart. He said, "I got first with the go-kart in the race!" and Nora responded, "me!" (as in, me too!). Will said, "No, you didn't! You got last place!" Then Nora responded, "okay!" in a very cheerful tone. It was just so funny to hear her agree that she had lost, so willingly. I just love hearing her little voice and personality come out at long last!

She has recently started to become interested in money. Will has had a piggy bank and has done chores to earn money for about a year now, and Nora has seen it all in action, time and time again, but until now has shown little interest. A few days ago however, Will did a chore to earn some money, and when I gave the money to him and not to her, she had a huge fit. Of course she hadn't helped with the chore at all, so I didn't feel too bad. But it got me thinking that she might be ready for her own piggy bank and chore system soon!

Recently she has developed more of a personality than I have seen in her before. She can be a bit of a stinker and a ham at the same time. One example of her being a stinker, is when she and Will are in their car seats. Will is forward facing in the middle, and Nora is rear facing behind the passenger seat, so they are next to each other, facing one another. She will place her hands or fe
et on Will, and when Will asks her to remove them, she completely ignores him. So we will tell her that she needs to move her limbs back into her own seat, and she will move them off Will's body, but still onto his seat. And we have to keep asking her to move them, and she will keep moving them incrementally away from Will. Stinker! She is also a ham lately and will perform a variety of funny, silly dances and make silly faces in order to get us to laugh. She so reminds me of my sister Katlyn at that age!

Her brother Daniel was born this month and so far she seems to be taking the adjustment in stride. I can tell that she doesn't relish when I hold him instead of her. I have been trying to make a concerted effort to put the baby down and have her sit in my lap, or invite her to sit with the two of us together. That seems to placate her so far. There have been so tears yet though, and she likes to come over and say, "hi baby!" and give him kisses on his cheek, which is very sweet. I hope she continues to do ok with transition to middle child! It can't be easy to no longer be the baby. A few times now she has come up to me and said, "Nowa baby!" And I tell her that she will always be my baby and I rock her in my arms. Then she wants to run off and play. They grow up too fast!